the definition of atheist.

[Unbeliever]

MISCREANT, n. A person of the highest degree of unworth. Etymologically, the word means unbeliever, and its present signification may be regarded as theology's noblest contribution to the development of our language.

Ambrose Bierce, The Devil's Dictionary

[Baruch]

The fool has said in his heart,
“There is no God.”... ?   

Psalm 14:1

Sometimes it is better to be a fool, than be a king.  A fool = court jester.  An ignoramus = peasant.  They are not the same.  The fool is the only one who can speak truth to power, and a smart power keeps at least one fool around to act as an escape valve for group think.  It is the fool who is the smartest and most smart aleck in the room.  It is Hamlet who talks to dead fools and dead kings.  Tyrants like Hamlet's uncle, don't soliloquize about fools or talk to dead kings ... if they did, because of not having live ones to talk to, it is probably because they are assassins like Macbeth.  Macbeth talked to live witches instead.

[Baruch]

Explain why Sam Harris believes that there is evidence for reincarnation then.

Theists, atheists, agnostics, nihilists, skeptics.  People who have no beliefs, are nihilists not atheists.  These words are equivalent only in New Speak, where all words are synonyms of each other.  That would be double-plus-un-good.  I bet that Sam Harris has some beliefs.  An atheist only believes there are no gods, or knows there are no gods.  I don't believe that there are any people who legitimately fit the maximal latter.  The first is a demo-skeptic, the second is as dogmatic as his theist equivalent.  I am a skeptical theist, meaning that I am skeptical, even about gods.  But I know gods, I don't just believe in them (but I could be a skeptical believer in gods also).  I know there are gods, it isn't just a belief for me.  I also have beliefs, not just knowledge, and in that I am like everyone else, though some humans like to claim they are superhuman, while claiming nothing is supernatural.

To mock Descartes ... even a nihilist believes in not believing.  A nihilist is a minimal dogmatist in regards to both belief and knowledge.  Technically, an agnostic, is someone who either believes that somethings are unknown, or that all things are unknown (again there is a difference between a maximal X and a minimal X).  An agnostic can have beliefs about something they are agnostic about.  A maximal agnostic is also another kind of dogmatist.  So to summarize, we have dogmatic theists, dogmatic agnostics, dogmatic atheists and dogmatic nihilists.  We also have skeptical versions of all 4.  I have both beliefs and knowledge.  Because I am skeptical about beliefs and knowledge I am a freethinker.  I can believe or know anything, I am the opposite of dogmatic or nihilistic ... because I think it is immodest to overly insist on anything.  The Buddha called this the Middle Way.  I can play any chess piece on any part of the chess board, but the best place to start is in the middle, not to one side or another.  Starting on one side or another is prejudice.

[SkyChief]

  An atheist only believes there are no gods, or knows there are no gods.

Wrong.

Don't feel bad;  This is a very common misunderstanding that many folks have with the term ATHEIST. 

The term Atheist means exactly that;   A (without or not) THEIST (belief in gods)

An Atheist person needs to make NO CLAIMS about the existence, or non-existence of gods.

If someone doesn't believe in gods, he/she is Atheist.  Plain and simple.  No further claims need to be made or implied.

Atheism requires no beliefs.  Rather, it is a LACK of belief.

This may seem like semantics, but to really understand the meaning of the term, it's important that we make this distinction.

[aitm]

according to collins cobuild dictionary, the definition of atheist is ''a person who believes there is no god.''

i think this is wrong.

meh, tomayto tomahto… yer gonna argue with peeps that think a grand wizard in the sky is worried if you cut the skin off your dick, over the definition of a word? Slay no more…….hehehhe

[Munch]

Atheism is simply someone who doesn't believe in make believe entities written by other people, or adheres to doctrine created by those who made it up.

This is all it means, and it can mean that as people atheists think outside the religious box they create, I have yet to hear an atheist make claim that homosexuality is unnatural for example, hopefully because it simply is a bigoted mind set created by religious doctrine.

But thats where the line ends, since there are many differing views that aren't shared just because of being an atheist, things like international politics, things like feminism or the wage gap, you can be an atheist but still have views separate from fellow atheists. Look at people like steve shivs or atheist roo, compared to tl;dr or thunderfoot, all are atheists but have such varied views they make videos on how stupid the other is based on certain other beleifs, like how steve shivs thinks men are naturally misogynistic while tl;dr calls him twat. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kS-JDkEtiTE

[jonb]

MISCREANT, n. A person of the highest degree of unworth. Etymologically, the word means unbeliever, and its present signification may be regarded as theology's noblest contribution to the development of our language.

Ambrose Bierce, The Devil's Dictionary

I love this and have found in it a new and I think more accurate way of defining myself, thanks!

[SGOS]

Atheism requires no beliefs.  Rather, it is a LACK of belief.

This may seem like semantics, but to really understand the meaning of the term, it's important that we make this distinction.

It is not a subtle nuance between lack of belief (atheism) and the assertion that there is no god (also atheism).  While the two are very different, they both fit the literal translation of "atheist" arrived at by the usual mechanical breakdown of word parts from the original (Latin or Greek maybe?)  Are there any other words where the prefix "a" does not mean "without?"

Now, dictionaries claim to report the common usage definition of words, not necessarily the correct usage, but what most knowledgeable people believe the word means, and the word "atheist" has most definitely been slaughtered by the warp and bias of theism, so you can make a case for the word not meaning what it literally means.

However, if we assume lack of belief is not atheism, then what is it?  What category does it fit in?  Or is what most of us here are, just an uncategorized group?  The main problem is with the human need to categorize things, theism seems to want to stuff lack of belief in the category of agnosticism, and mitigate for rather unintellectual slaughter of the word "atheist", but then we now have to slaughter the word "agnostic," which describes something entirely different from lack of belief.

I usually hate pedantic people, but oddly, I feel mysteriously compelled to get pedantic about the slaughter of the word "atheist" by theists.  Yes, I'm happy to be both an agnostic and an atheist, so what's the problem?  As I see it, it leads theists to make incorrect assumptions about people and subdivides me and my peers into arbitrary groups according to how much theists feel compelled to hate me and my friends.  But there is also the factor of their ignorance and bias, which is harmful to a respectful society.

[josephpalazzo]

[Baruch]

Gnostic theist = me

[peacewithoutgod]

Sometimes it is better to be a fool, than be a king.  A fool = court jester.  An ignoramus = peasant.  They are not the same.  The fool is the only one who can speak truth to power, and a smart power keeps at least one fool around to act as an escape valve for group think.  It is the fool who is the smartest and most smart aleck in the room.  It is Hamlet who talks to dead fools and dead kings.  Tyrants like Hamlet's uncle, don't soliloquize about fools or talk to dead kings ... if they did, because of not having live ones to talk to, it is probably because they are assassins like Macbeth.  Macbeth talked to live witches instead.

I think we can leave it to you and Cindy to be fools for us, with you being so good at that. Cindy has postulated that she is a fool for Cthulu, a fictional character created by H.P. Lovecraft. Who are you a fool for, Baruch?

You cannot be a fool without being somebody else's fool, and atheists are nobody's fool - we disbelieve all gods equally on account of the position to which neutral logic dictates regarding supernatural ideas, and we don't deny that some intelligence, however unlikely and however useless it clearly has been in the development of the universe, may have been involved with its inception. Nobody manipulates our thinking, therefore we are nobody's fools.

[peacewithoutgod]

according to collins cobuild dictionary, the definition of atheist is ''a person who believes there is no god.''

i think this is wrong. atheism is the state of ''non-believing.''

the definition must be that atheist is ''a person who doesn't believe a god.''

You are absolutely, 100% correct sir - you have the correct definition, and the dictionaries (most of them, anyway) are incorrect. They are never thoroughly updated by the thoroughly knowledgeable, and some definitions remain stuck in 19th Century ignorance. Everybody who doesn't believe every god which they have ever been told of is an atheist, and we who call ourselves atheists simply go one further than the Xtians, the Muslims, or the Jews. That's right, the Buddhists and the Hindus who disbelieve Jesus are atheists too, and if an Xtian disbelieves even one of the Hindu gods, he too is an atheist.

I have raised the issue innumerable times myself regarding how serious this matter is, but unfortunately few even among other atheists seem to understand the problem for what it is - don't know why, with snarky 10-year-olds pointing to the wrong definition every day and going "look, atheists really DO have faith, they really are blind BELIEVERS in their ideas!" I don't believe any god who I have ever seen, and since I don't believe that anything supernatural is likely, I don't believe there is any sort of god, but I don't <i>believe</i> there is no god - what I do believe in is ideas which are supported by evidence.

"Atheist" is a compound word, consisting of none other than the negative "a", followed by "theist". I am not a theist, and that's all that it means. Not a theist on Brahmin, not a theist on Thor, not a theist on Yahweh and his progeny, nor am I a theist on anything which is purported to explain the way things are in this world as all gods are.

[peacewithoutgod]

meh, tomayto tomahto… yer gonna argue with peeps that think a grand wizard in the sky is worried if you cut the skin off your dick, over the definition of a word? Slay no more…….hehehhe

That sort of ignorance helps nobody - words have meaning, and they can be very powerful! This is a whole different issue from the crocodilishly-sensitive assholes who create new excuses to promote their own careers by taking offense over what is no true slight, and it's important that we all understand the difference between that use of of semantics and the way they are used to build fallacious arguments.

[Unbeliever]

Wrong.

Don't feel bad;  This is a very common misunderstanding that many folks have with the term ATHEIST. 

The term Atheist means exactly that;   A (without or not) THEIST (belief in gods)

An Atheist person needs to make NO CLAIMS about the existence, or non-existence of gods.

If someone doesn't believe in gods, he/she is Atheist.  Plain and simple.  No further claims need to be made or implied.

Atheism requires no beliefs.  Rather, it is a LACK of belief.

This may seem like semantics, but to really understand the meaning of the term, it's important that we make this distinction.

A newborn baby is an atheist, and does not become a theist until taught the theist meme.

Also, my cat is an atheist, and though many have tried to convert her to theism, she's held out all this time, because I've schooled her in logic and clear thinking.

Cats, by the way, are hard to teach such things as tu quoque!

[Baruch]

I think we can leave it to you and Cindy to be fools for us, with you being so good at that. Cindy has postulated that she is a fool for Cthulu, a fictional character created by H.P. Lovecraft. Who are you a fool for, Baruch?

You cannot be a fool without being somebody else's fool, and atheists are nobody's fool - we disbelieve all gods equally on account of the position to which neutral logic dictates regarding supernatural ideas, and we don't deny that some intelligence, however unlikely and however useless it clearly has been in the development of the universe, may have been involved with its inception. Nobody manipulates our thinking, therefore we are nobody's fools.

But I manipulated your mind, remotely thru Internet postings ... to post that ;-)

My writing style as been compared by a writing style bot ... to H P Lovecraft.  Which is it better to be?  A follower of Cthulhu, Cthulhu himself, or the creator of Cthulhu?

As far as H P Lovecraft gods go, I rather like Krum ;-)  Where Conan falls into the barrow of the old king ... Indiana Jones!